Sep 9, 2012

Those familiar with Gigabyte's Z77N-WiFi and H77N-WiFi Mini-ITX motherboards, may make the mistaken assumption that they are available.

Nevertheless, even though photos of them have been up on Gigabyte's Facebook page since August, the two are still not out there. We have good reason to believe that at least one of them (the latter) will be released this month though: HWBOT has posted some real-life photos of the mini-ITX H77N-WiFi. You can clearly see the single PCI Express x16 slots (generation 3.0), the two SATA 6 Gbps ports, two SATA 3 Gbps ports, two Gigabit Ethernet ports and two memory slots (support for up to 16GB DDR3-1600 MHz memory). What may not be all that obvious, but is quite comprehensively explained on the box (of which, fortunately, there is more than one picture) and the manual, are technical details that may not matter to some, but will mean a lot to DIY customers. For one, whatever second- or third-generation Intel Core CPU (Sandy Bridge or Ivy Bridge) ends up placed in the LGA 1155 socket is powered, along with the memory, by a 4+1-phase VRM. Secondly, the SATA ports can run HDDs and/or SSDs in RAID 0, 1, 5 or 10 modes. Thirdly, the mainboard boasts Lower RDS MOSFETs and Ferrite Core chokes, which enhance stability and endurance.

Other specs include six USB 2.0 ports, four USB 3.0 connectors, two HDMI outputs, a DVI connector, 8-channel audio (Realtek), a dual-purpose PS/2 port and, of course, the 802.11 b/g/n WLAN network interface that gave the product its name. That said, the motherboard has support for Intel's Wi-Di technology, which streams high-quality video to wireless-capable HDTVs, or any HDTV if there is a compatible receiver involved (plugs in the HDMI port). No pricing info yet, unfortunately, so it looks like we have to wait some more after all.